Workshop Archives

Fall 2018 Workshop: Kaleah's Wire Sculpture Presentation

Kaleah introduced SAEA members to the medium of wire sculpture. She recycles old telephone wire that she gets from electricians, but also recommends 20 gauge wire from Dollarama for middle years/high school students (pliers help in the bending process) and pipe cleaners for younger ones. An important aspect in choosing wire is that it doesn't break after a few bends. Kaleah profiles Saskatchewan based artist, Twyla Exner, when introducing wire projects, and also reads the book Sandy's Circus to engage students.

Kaleah said that she would start students off with practicing various wire bending shapes. She then introduces the term "contour" and has them trace a subject's contour from a picture, such as the dragonfly, and has them follow the picture with the wire. If students want to create more of a 3D sculpture they can circle around objects such as pens or markers, and create more of a sculptural body.

One option SAEA members discussed is the opportunity to use wire sculpture to create stop-motion animation using free apps.

Fall 2018 Workshop: Roberta and Merv's Clay People

Merv started off the presentation by letting everyone in on a little secret: if you stack meter sticks you can create slabs out of a block of clay VERY easily. Tip: most Saskatoon and area teachers get clay from TREE pottery. Merv then went on to demo how placing a slab of clay over a crumpled paper towel can be the basis for creating a rounded slab face, and had fun showing people how he creates teeth and hair. Both Merv and Roberta stressed that thirsty clay needs water from the inside out (adding water to its surface is not effective, rather it needs to be mixed in when the teacher kneads the clay).

Roberta creates her sculptural people in grade 9 art class, using the theme of ageism. She discusses with students various aspects of the aging process and then has them do the following to create their clay people:

Create two pinch pots and score the two sides.

Add a bit of water and join the pieces together, smoothing over where the clay joins so no one can tell.

Pat the bottom to create the jaw. Also, pat both sides of the head so it is more oval.

Press in the eyes.

Roll two peas and place those into the eye sockets to create eyes.

Create "bananas" and add those around each eye to create eyelids and eyebrows.

Create a triangle (she talks about the various shapes - obtuse, etc.) and attach it to create a nose.

Roll two "peas" and add those on each side of the triangle to create nostrils.

Roll a circle and create a chin. She likes to tell kids that the chin is trying to meet the nose, so shape it in that direction.

Lips can be created by drawing a slit for the mouth or by adding a minimal amount of "lip"

To create hair use a garlic press, press it through a sieve or piece of window screen, or create larger chunks for hair and draw into them.

Create a hole in the bottom of the sculpture so it doesn't explode in the kiln (hot air expands and needs somewhere to go)

Role a slab and join it together to create the neck. Make sure the sculpture balances.

Once fired, Roberta makes the painting process go more smoothly by pre-mixing 5 different skin colours and giving students just 10 minutes to sponge it on. The only painting they do with a brush is the eyes.

2018 Fall Workshop - Alison Montgomery's Watercolour Workshop

Alison, a retired high school art teacher and professional artist, started off the afternoon by explaining that there are three key factors in watecolour painting: the paper, the brush, and the paint. The brand name of the paper matters more than the weight (she recommends 140 lb and up) - Strathmore is excellent. The brush needs to have a good tip so that it can have details, but also be broad enough that it can spread paint easily on the page. The paint needs to have intense colours. We used this Yarka set.

Alison always recommends setting up watercolour paper at an angle, and she demonstrated how to do this with an encyclopedia. This helps the water always flow in one directly and helps to create a bead at the bottom of each brush stroke. Key things to remember with watercolour: no white is used - the paper is the white. Also, she stressed that she only ever let students use yellow, red (crimson), and blue (pthalo) to mix the rest of their colours for painting. That was our first activity, mixing tertiary and secondary colours, and she always starts with this activity with students.

The second activity was practicing four key techniques: flat wash, wet-into-wet, a fast stroke of colour into a wet base, and dry brush.

The third activity she would have students do in a watercolour unit would be to draw the same still life (a hand holding an apple, for example) using these four techniques.

The fourth activity would be painting a landscape, using sure to leave white "breathing" space in the image as this helps to create shapes (like clouds) and also allows space for the eye to move around the page and take it all in. She would provide students with images to start from so they didn't pick overly complicated pieces.

The fifth and sixth activities were painting still lifes. The first time she would not allow students to pre-draw the shapes, but would instruct them to represent the values. This often results in a more impressionistic image. The second day she would allow them to pre-draw the objects (she'd pick 3 for them to focus on) and then paint these.

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